Okay, I promise I’m going to stop copying Erica, seriously. I just want to ramble a little more than is prudent on someone else’s blog.

I don’t like the traditional universal hero. The kind that sacrifices himself to save the world kinda deal. Such a hero normally is so concerned with the big picture that his wife/girlfriend/lover/family/friends etc. suffer. And what kind of hero can you possibly be if you can’t even maintain relationships with these key people in your life? It’s like being in a relationship with the president. It sounds sexy on paper, but you aren’t the number one priority. So screw that.

I prefer personal heroes. A guy who doesn’t sacrifice virgins in his spare time, who generally does the non-evil thing, and who is mostly concerned with saving himself or one person or at the very most a few people. A hero who is a hero situationally. Based on this story, not based on the fact that he lists “hero” as his occupation on all the forms he fills out.

I also prefer a hero that is entirely self-motivated. Not driven by a “mission” or “greater good” or the interests of any large group (though I’ve made some exceptions to that last one, when we’re talking about something more close to home, like being the leader of a smaller group. In paranormal romance it would be like a tribe or coven or something of that nature.) I basically don’t want my hero beholden to anyone but his own nature, and his weakness to be usually one other person.

I like them tall, dark, handsome, psychotically strong, scary as hell (though not to the people that matter), and morally ambiguous.